The present invention relates to a self-service terminal (SST) and to a network of SSTs. In particular, the invention relates to an automated teller machine (ATM).
SSTs are public access devices that are typically located in publicly accessible areas, and are operated by a large number of different users. One type of SST is an ATM. ATMs are installed in a large number of countries world-wide and provide users with a convenient source of cash.
A number of factors have contributed to mass-market adoption of ATMs. These include:                an intuitive and simple ATM user-interface, typically comprising an encrypting keypad, a display, function display keys (FDKs) for selecting options presented on a screen on the display, and the application flow (that is, information displayed on a screen in response to user input);        ubiquity of ATM networks (over 850,000 ATMs are deployed world-wide), which provides high availability of ATMs;        development of a large and broadly-held card base (over a billion cards in circulation can be used to access ATMs); and        a limited set of transactions, typically comprising cash dispensing, balance inquiry, deposits, and funds transfer.        
These features have created what may be called “the 60-second experience” (that is, a user expects that no-one will spend more than one minute at an ATM). Thus, a user associates ATMs with a fast and convenient source of cash.
A disadvantage associated with ATMs, however, is that the technologies and features that provide these benefits have also made it difficult for ATM owners and network operators to introduce new functions and information.
Most ATMs use hierarchical communications protocols that dictate the exact communications path that any given transaction will take, which makes an ATM network and individual ATMs within that network vulnerable to any failure that occurs in that path. In particular, a failure in any “switch” in the network could stop the operation of all the ATMs in the ATM network. A “switch” is the hardware and software that route a transaction entered at an ATM to a host computer system holding account data relating to the person requesting the transaction.
To offset the vulnerability of the ATM network to a single point of failure, all the components in an ATM network are designed to be “fault-tolerant” and the switch software is extensively tested before any new functions are introduced. The costs of introducing any new service or function can be high, because of the extensive testing that has to be performed, and because many of the components used in an ATM network use proprietary technology that is not shared across the computer and communications industries more broadly.
The advent of the Internet is changing both the technical and consumer landscape for ATM owners and network operators. At a technical level, Internet technologies and features such as TCP/IP, the World Wide Web (hereinafter referred to as the ‘Web’), and Web servers, give ATM owners and network operators a potential alternative to the conventional ATM hierarchical architecture.
An ATM network based on Internet technologies could be just as secure and reliable as a traditional ATM network, but have lower operating costs and be more amenable to the introduction of new functions. An Internet-based ATM network would also be reliable because it would have no single point of failure. The inherent “peer-to-peer” nature of the Internet means that any ATM or server that failed would not affect the service provided by the remaining servers and ATMs in the network.
Network operating costs would also be lower because the network would be based on standard technologies used throughout the computer and communications industry, rather than on proprietary technologies supported by a small number of controlling firms and sold in relatively small volumes.
An Internet-based ATM network would be amenable to rapid and inexpensive introduction of new functions, because doing so would not adversely affect the reliability of the network or require the use of proprietary technologies or the co-operation of any controlling firms.
At a user level, the advent of the Internet has changed user expectations about the availability of information. The large number of Web users has stimulated “content providers” (where a “content provider” is any person or firm with information that can be distributed over the Web). As a result, users now expect any information that can be rendered in digital format to be made available via the Web, for example, news, weather, maps, photos, email, tickets, money, and such like. When information is digitized and stored or sent via the Internet, it becomes “Internet content”.
Increasingly, users also expect their Internet content to be personalized, to reflect their habits and preferences. Some Internet content is delivered to all users identically, subject only to variations imposed by differences in particular Web browsers (that is, two different types of Web browser may render the same information slightly differently on a display). Thus, a generic (un-personalized) Web page would present the same type and format of information to every person who visits that Web page, in a similar way to a billboard that presents the same information to every viewer.
Personalization, however, enables the selection and presentation of Internet content to be varied according to the user. At any given Web site where personalization is used, one user may receive different content, presented differently, than another user. In some cases personalization results from conscious choices made by the user, for content, layout, or both, as in MyYahoo! (trade mark). In other cases personalization results from the content owner's analysis of information collected about the user, so that the content owner (or Web site owner) tailors the user's Web site experience in a manner that the content owner believes most useful. This may be achieved, for example, using a customer relationship management software package.
There has also been an emergence of mobile wireless data services to cater for the needs of users having portable wireless devices, such as cellular telephones. Due to the screen size, keypad, and bandwidth limitations associated with conventional cellular telephones, PC Web content must be formatted specially for these devices. Protocols and technologies (such as wireless application protocol (WAP) and i-Mode) have been developed to enable portable devices to access the PC Web, and to ensure that Internet content is optimally rendered for delivery to handheld devices.
Internet content providers are developing “WAP sites”, which are to WAP what PC Web sites are to the PC Web. These WAP sites (or similar sites using protocols other than WAP) have destinations marked with a unique address, so that users enter this address into their microbrowser (installed in the portable device) to connect to the WAP site using wireless transmission and obtain news, stock quotes, entertainment, and other information formatted for portable devices having small displays.
Operators, content providers, and others are developing “mobile portals” such as Yahoo Mobile (trade mark) and Vizzavi (trade mark), that are similar to the well-known portals on the PC Web—AOL (trade mark), Yahoo! (trade mark), Wanadoo (trade mark), and such like. Furthermore, these PC Web portals are positioning themselves to become mobile portals, so that people who use the PC version will be able to bring appropriate aspects of that experience to their wireless device.
ATM owners and network operators are therefore serving a mass market that, due to the PC Web and wireless technologies, is coming to expect convenient access to a large range and quantity of information. The ATM industry, however, has not been very successful in putting these technologies to work in a way that either reduces cost or delivers a new or better experience to users. Wireless technologies have been used in existing ATM networks, to enable ATM deployment on riverboats and other locations where a landline is unavailable or not cost effective to install. This approach gives ATM owners more flexibility in deployment and redeployment, but does not significantly reduce the total cost of operation (indeed, the cost in some cases may be higher) or deliver any new functions.
There are a number of different approaches to provide Web content on ATMs.
One approach is to add a PC Web browser to an ATM and connect the browser to new kinds of content. The conventional ATM network remains intact for delivering traditional content and functions (mainly cash-dispensing), but adds news, weather, stock quotes, and other content from the PC Web, all knit together seamlessly from the user's vantage. This approach provides some new functions (whichever PC Web content the ATM owner chooses to obtain), but is not personalized to the user, does not reduce operating cost for the ATM owner, is typically costly and time-consuming to implement because each network that requires Web-enablement is a custom development, and there is the risk that any changes to the source web sites will adversely affect the new functions on the ATM. For example, if an ATM owner connects to XYZ web site, and incorporates the XYZ content into an ATM screen as a new function, and later XYZ changes its Web site in some manner, the new function at the ATM might no longer work.
All PC Web sites assume the user has a large display, a full alpha-numeric keyboard, a mouse, more or less complete privacy, and as much time to spend browsing as is desired. ATMs, by contrast, present a generally smaller display, a nine-key keypad, typically eight function display keys, no mouse, a semi-public or public environment, and a user expectation for the 60-second experience.
A fundamental problem is that to regard an ATM as though it is a PC alienates users; yet to take content designed for the PC and repackage it for the ATM is time-consuming and expensive.
Yet another approach to provide Web content on an ATM tailors PC Web content to fit the ATM experience but does so as a dedicated proprietary ATM portal to configure ATM content for presentation and navigation on an ATM within an ATM network. A proprietary ATM portal company may make technical and business alliances with a content provider, such as an event ticketing company, and integrate that content provider's PC Web site with the ATM portal company's own proprietary software and server. The ATM portal company may then deliver that PC Web content via an existing ATM network to ATMs whose owners install the ATM portal company's client-level software. This approach ensures that the content will comply with the user-interface of the ATM and may be relatively inexpensive for the ATM owner to deploy, but is not personalized to the user, does not lower the ATM owner's total operating costs, and depends on the ATM portal company's ability to sign alliance agreements with content providers and ATM owners.
There is therefore a need:                to deliver Web content to an ATM at low cost to the ATM owner while preserving the 60-second experience and other aspects of the user interface that ATM users expect;        to provide an ATM with Web content that is personalized for a user so that the Web content emulates the Web content of the user's wireless device; and        to reduce the total cost of operation of ATM networks.        